Category: health

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Legal illegal business

The world of business has to be quite well defined in order to make the borders between legal and illegal practices clear, transparent and enforceable. You name the business or trade and then check the rules governing it. For pharmaceutical products we have rather strict regulations, but smuggling across borders can be a challenge to national customs if online commerce can easily circumvent national controls. Trading on ebay in small amounts is not defined as a tax registered trade, if it is below certain amounts. However, this might be difficult to control and legal rules are at times tough to enforce. The construction sector has been closely scrutinized for illegal practices and sketchy applications of regulations with regard to health and safety of employees. Regulations can be a pain, but they have contributed to safe lives in many instances. (Image: construction of “Scheune” (barn) in Berlin 2026-9, future center of Kulturforum). 

Kulturforum construction 2026-9

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Scroll or stop

In 2026-10 the fundamental question is: to scroll or not to scroll? As we have moved into the individualistic society with omnipresence of the not-so-social media we keep scrolling through online content. Our attention habits are subject to so-called cliffhangers which aim to direct our attention on specific topics, surprising images or just steering us to more-of-the-same content. The social media ban for children fights against the addiction to endless scrolling. In most cases, what is good for children is also beneficial for adults. Hence, the “endless scrolling” (which I increased on this blog at several occasions, currently = 30 max entries) is from now on reduced to 10. After those 10 entries, you are invited to read more on one of those entries or use one-click proposed keywords or categories. The search of topics or names is another more specific entry into a social science perspective. Maybe, the invitation to scroll less, but stop more often and read or follow proposed links is a beginning to detox our online habits. 

Tags on www.schoemann.org 2026-10
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Gone napping

There are cultures where naps are part of a national identity. People living in hot climates are very familiar with the benefits of a napping. Due global warming, the spread of napping as a time to recover or limit yourself from strain during the hottest hours during a day. Napping is not limited to humans, the animal world has many species which also adopted the power of napping. As with many processes the duration is of crucial importance. In short, don’t overdo it. Too long a nap is likely to impede a good night’s rest. Even while at work,  colleagues manage to throw in a short re-powering session at times locking doors to feel safe. Techniques differ, but the hotter the workplace, the more the healthy they are. Efficiency and overall productivity at work do not suffer. In many creative professions the time spent at your desk correlates little with indicators of success. However, we still know little about the effects of regular napping on longevity. 

Phoques on beach 2026-9

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Stress in the City

Before the stress in the city makes you sick, try new coping strategies. Of course, you cannot avoid the stress of hotspots like busy crossings or noisy construction sites. And these are only the visible stressors not to mention fine dust particles or mixtures of fragrances. Scientists have started to address these issues under the title of neuro-urbanism. This topic is part of a broader agenda on public mental health which addresses the rise in mental disorders globally. Expanding urbanization is considered a major driver of an often overwhelming cognitive load in cities. Growing into it helps, but many move to cities for professional reasons or simply a job being largely unprepared to the practice of daily commuting for years. Several potential stressors tend to cumulate: High Social density, broad diversity in aesthetics as well as social structure, relationships, social participation or public transport as part of mobility make cities interesting or hard to cope with.

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Heat Health Protection

The heat waves of 2026 had serious health impacts in Europe and beyond. Hence, it is urgent to propose better protections to shield people from negative heat exposure which worsened the health of millions of people. Digital tools which work to personalize heat warnings and increase preventive strategies like drinking water or reduce physical activity outside during the hottest times of the day. Sounds simple, but thousands of people continue to put themselves at risk to suffer seriously from heat exposure. The macro-level general population warning’s could be much more specific if they included additionally the relevant medical conditions of an individual (Du et al. 2026). Prior health conditions affect the general preparedness to cope with heat. We have an obvious case of bi-directional causality. A worsening heat health spiral could be at the origin of so many premature deaths during heat waves. Search for “cool locations” should be considered very seriously for heat-health protection.

Notre Dame Paris 2026-8

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Swimming Paris

Swimmingpools are rarely on the to-do-list of tourists in Paris. This is good news for all those who go to a Swimmingpool for real exercise. In Paris you can enjoy the almost a century old public pool for swimming exercises with 50m lengths. In the entry hall you have literally a hundred doors where you change and, previously, you kept your clothes while swimming. Light by design welcomes you to do something good for you, physically and mentally. The “Piscine Blomet” (Paris 15th arrondisement) preserves a bit of the charm of the early 1930s Art-deco style in Paris. Sports deserved to be performed and exercised in fine architecture not just functional concrete. It is quite a challenge to preserve such architectural treasures including their original function. It is not all just business and tourism in Paris.

Blomet piscine Paris 2026-8

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Healthy intervention

The shift back from a city which favors mobility on wheels to a city where more people move using on their feet is healthy intervention. Paris has succeeded in many inner city areas to improve the „walkability“. On Sundays joggers pass in groups where previously cars were rushing across the city. Noise levels and pollution have been reduced which attracts even more tourists. Many more than the city could handle with too much space occupied by cars and trucks. Security levels are increased by restrictions to car access to some roads and people feel safe and relaxed even in the city center of a metropolitan city. Besides the effect that more tourists come to enjoy this atmosphere, those living and working in Paris feel less forced to leave the city over weekends due to unhealthy pollution levels. Access from suburbs by public transport runs at high frequencies also on weekends. This brings people into the center for events, shopping and event shopping.

Palais de Justice Paris Seine 2026-8

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Activity and dementia

In view of the huge challenge of dementia to people and the public health systems, it is primordial to test potential remedies with high precision. So far general measures of just any physical activity like walking were considered beneficial. Recent and more comprehensive data on domain-specific physical activities by Feter et al. (2026) emphasize the importance to differentiate between walking for leisure or walking rather stressed to work. The former contributes to a delay of the onset of dementia, whereas the latter bears higher risks of dementia due to the “negative” stress involved. However, as Kivimäki and Hamer (2026) point out dementia itself has a long gestation period in which persons might reduce physical activities because a “silent” onset of dementia is not yet diagnosed but inhibits already more activities. Commuting to work or leisure might already be a challenge in early dementia particularly if public transport has to be organized independently. 

Commute in Berlin by underground U-Bahn

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Urban heat island

Heat in the city, is a real problem. Of course, some like it hot and that’s why they move to inner cities and specific quarters in a city. However, this is not the scientific definition of the “urban heat island effect”. The former issue is more a socio-legal-moral concern, whereas the latter has physics or geophysical effects at its origin.
More concrete and asphalt instead of leafy islands in inner cities create hot micro-climates as sunlight and warmth get stored during the day and feeds back into homes during nights. If the cooling effect of wind and humidity become trapped outside of building blocks an urban heat island can reach very uncomfortable levels. Add underground car parking, tunnels for traffic and public transport to the scenario and the unhealthy limits of heat over the summer are exceeded for months rather than weeks. Geophysical factors like altitude, mountains, river or seaside proximity are additional factors to consider, but the narrow urban heat island effect is a rather robust finding across the world even if the precise measurement and potential remedies of it are under scientific debate.

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Co-evolution process

Humans look back on a long co-evolution process with viruses, bacteria, insects and animals. The focus on a solitary evolution of humans alone is already a challenge, although we know that the evolutionary process is much more complex. Within the co-evolution process of humans and animals, the co-evolution with the species of dogs has lead to interesting learning opportunities for both. Braeuer et al (2024) show that a dog’s cognitive capabilities to perceive human emotions beyond simple positive or negative emotions. As dogs seem to monitor their owners constantly, many of them are able to alert persons about health and/or emotional state. This is a learning process for dogs, but also for their human owners as their authentic emotional expressions are immediately recognized by their dog. A co-evolutionary approach offers a lot of benefits to all involved.